For the Stars of 'Clerks,' It's Take Two

By KEVIN CAHILLANE

Published: July 16, 2006

''CLERKS II,'' the long-awaited sequel to Kevin Smith's raunchy 1994 opus, arrives in theaters on Friday. Like its predecessor, it is ultimately a buddy picture, but in real life, the two leads are hardly inseparable.

Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson, the 36-year-old co-stars reprising their roles as New Jersey minimum-wage slaves, barely kept in touch during the 12-year stretch between the movies. After meeting on the set of ''Clerks,'' which was filmed over several graveyard shifts at the Quick Stop convenience store in Leonardo, the two men largely went their separate ways. At the time, few people expected the film to see the light of day, much less the darkness of the multiplex.

While the actors' careers are now forever entwined, they are pursuing them on different coasts. Mr. O'Halloran stayed in New Jersey, working in theater and films; Mr. Anderson went to California to pursue Hollywood success.

''The weirdest misconception is people expect me and Brian to live together in a one-room apartment in West Hollywood,'' Mr. Anderson said by telephone from his home in Toluca Lake in the San Fernando Valley. ''The truth is we don't spend a lot of time together.''

Mr. Anderson's film career was a happy accident. While he and Mr. Smith graduated together in 1988 from Henry Hudson Regional High School in Highlands, they were not close until Mr. Anderson began to rent movies from the video store where Mr. Smith worked. They developed a rapport, Mr. Anderson said, and Mr. Smith decided to cast his friend in the movie he was writing about a day in the life of Dante and Randal, two young men not unlike themselves.

''I had doubts the movie would actually get done,'' Mr. Anderson said. ''The first night, we had a crew of about 12 and it felt like a real movie. By the end, we were lucky to have the actors show up.''

Mr. Smith edited ''Clerks'' at the video store, and the film's back story -- no-name filmmaker shoots $28,000 feature in the dead of night at a dead-end job -- became as celebrated as the filthy but hyper-articulate banter that would become Mr. Smith's trademark. While ''Clerks'' was well received at the box office, it did not find its cult following on video and cable until a year or two later. By then, Mr. Anderson had returned to grinding out a living.

''I worked at AT&T during the day and went to school for architecture at N.J.I.T. at night,'' he said. ''The movie had a life of its own, and I had a life of my own.''

The ultimate success of ''Clerks'' inspired Mr. Anderson to jettison that life and move to Los Angeles in 1995. There, however, he discovered that he was a flop at auditioning.

A Taco Bell voiceover job (''Want some?'') came to his financial rescue and launched a career in commercials. In 2002, he made a film comeback of sorts, writing and directing a movie called ''Now You Know,'' which Miramax acquired but never released.

Mr. Anderson says he had to be sold on the idea of playing Randal again in ''Clerks II''; he was reluctant to tamper with the hallowed status of the original film.

''No. 2 wasn't an easy decision,'' he said. ''It's been 12 or 13 years, and I still get three or four fan letters a week.''

Mr. O'Halloran, in contrast, did not hesitate. ''I'm a working actor,'' he said over a late lunch at the Manalapan Diner, ''so to be asked by a pretty prominent filmmaker to co-star in a feature film, I was like, 'Absolutely.' ''

Mr. O'Halloran, a resident of Old Bridge since age 13, has not had to go the McJob route. He works regularly in productions of the New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch, and he has had small parts in almost all of Mr. Smith's other movies.

Both Mr. O'Halloran and Mr. Anderson hope that ''Clerks II'' will open eyes and doors in Hollywood. Each man has a screenplay in his pocket. Mr. O'Halloran's is about a group of former high school friends who learn the importance of family on a dreaded holiday trip home. The working title is ''Thanks. Giving.'' Mr. Anderson's revolves around a suicidal man who hires a destitute woman to marry and murder him for the insurance money. It's called ''Marry Me to Death.''

Mr. O'Halloran is more composed and relaxed than his character, Dante, who finds himself still working at the Quick Stop as ''Clerks II'' opens. After a fire guts the place, the two clerks find jobs at the counter at Mooby's, a burger joint, where Dante is torn between his fianc?(played by Jennifer Schwalbach, who is married to Mr. Smith) and his manager (Rosario Dawson).

Mr. O'Halloran predicts that the new film, which was made for $5 million, will resonate with regular people.

''Some people may have a problem thinking these guys have been in that job for 10 years,'' he said. ''But a lot of people out there get stuck in a certain routine where time completely flies by, and before they know it, 10 years are gone.''

Photos: THEN AND NOW -- Above, Jeff Anderson, left, and Brian O'Halloran in ''Clerks.'' Left, they reprise their roles in ''Clerks II.'' (Photo by Darren Michaels/Weinstein Company); (Photo by Miramax Films)